Each year, Year 6 teachers are requested to transfer a teacher assessment level for ICT.
Here, Julie Leigh, Co-ordinating Adviser for ICT, shares with us some partnership headline figures…

Each summer Year 6 teachers are expected to transfer a teacher assessment level for ICT. This year the results below are based on returns for over 6,335 pupils which represents almost every primary school.

Congratulations to all those teachers who fulfilled their ICT Assessment responsibility this year.  Only two primary schools failed to return their assessments and, as all statisticians know, the larger the sample the more reliable the data.

Last year there was an apparent 2.8% drop in the number of children achieving Level 4+. This year we have improved on 2003 figures by 1.23% and on 2004 by 4.07%. I have included, for your information, the 2003 and 2004 figures first published in Ox-on-line in 2004, by way of a comparison.

As you will see from the table there is considerable variation in these assessments with results ranging from 55%  of pupils at Level 4 and above to 96% of pupils achieving Level 4 or above.

The Secondary Consultants have ensured that Heads of ICT have received pupils’ Year 6 Teacher Assessment levels by providing each secondary school ICT department with a CD with the ICT data and Fischer Family Trust predicted targets for ICT GCSE based on their English, Maths and Science KS2 SATS results. This data has been used as a starting point when setting ICT targets within the department.

Liaison with feeder primary schools is paramount. It is important for secondary schools to understand why pupils with Level 3 are in need of intervention programmes. Have they received the same entitlement as the child who has achieved Level 5? Is the Level 5 child an average ability child who has received his/her full entitlement in the primary school with a gifted teacher or is he/she a gifted pupil or is it both?

Baseline Assessment

More than half of Oxfordshire primary schools also completed a summary return for pupils in Year 2, 4 and 6. (For simplicity’s sake Year 6 data only has been illustrated below.)   The ICT Team have analysed the results since 2001 and we use the analysis to inform our work, including the production of resources to support specific areas of the ICT National Curriculum.

This year the data suggests that in the drive to embed effective use of ICT across the curriculum some schools may not now be delivering the full ICT Curriculum. We have seen significant drops in the following areas:

·         Finding things out - Handling information

Ø      48%   - sort records in a datafile (55% in 2003)

Ø      39%  -  set up a database and enter data (52% in 2003)

·         Modelling

Ø      62% - explore a prepared spreadsheet (71% in 2003)

Ø      60%  - enter a formula in a spreadsheet (66% in 2003)

As primary schools move to embed ICT across the curriculum, our experience in Oxfordshire would seem to be widespread. The Primary Strategy has also recognised that there is a serious need to remind schools of the ICT NC requirements, including the progression required to develop ICT capability.

Currently a small number of Local Authorities, including Oxfordshire, have been asked by the DfES to work on an ICT Progression framework. The framework will be available towards the summer in both paper and electronic formats and will include clear advice on the following areas:

·         Progression through the strands

·         Mapping across subjects showing where capability can be developed

·         Suggestions of contexts where explicit ICT capability could be appropriately developed in each year group

·         Year group descriptions – which will make it explicit what needs to be delivered in year 3, for example.

·         Transition all the way from FS through to Year 7

·         Assessment materials

Finally it is important that we remember - for a child entering school now 95% of jobs that will be available when they leave school have not yet been developed. As well as being ICT literate students will need to be flexible and adaptive problem-solvers in all aspects of the curriculum.

 J Leigh

Co-ordinating Adviser – ICT Specialist

Editor’s note:  an ideal opportunity for Secondary colleagues to meet with their feeder Primary Schools counterparts is the Primary ICT Co-ordinators’ meeting in each of the school partnerships.  In Term 4, the meetings are scheduled at:

In Term 6 the meetings will be at:

All meetings are from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. – let us know if you want to join us!